Young Adults Reminisce about Music from before Their Time

September 9, 2013—Music has an uncanny way of bringing us back to a specific point in time, and each generation seems to have its own opinions about which tunes will live on as classics. New research suggests that young adults today are fond of and have an emotional connection to the music that was popular for their parents' generation.
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Obese Teenagers Who Lose Weight at Risk for Developing Eating Disorders

 

Teens also likely to go undiagnosed, develop more severe medical complications

ROCHESTER, MN; September 9, 2013—Obese teenagers who lose weight are at risk of developing eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, Mayo Clinic researchers imply in a recent Pediatrics article. Eating disorders among these patients are also not being adequately detected because the weight loss is seen as positive by providers and family members.
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Nasal Inhalation of Oxytocin Improves Face Blindness

 

Can you say "prosopagnosia"?

September 6, 2013—Prosopagnosia (face blindness) may be temporarily improved following inhalation of the hormone oxytocin.

This is the finding of research led by Dr Sarah Bate and Dr Rachel Bennetts of the Centre for Face Processing Disorders at Bournemouth University that will be presented today, Friday 6 September, at the British Psychological Society’s Joint Cognitive and Developmental annual conference at the University of Reading.

Dr Bate explained: “Prosopagnosia is characterised by a severe impairment in face recognition, whereby a person cannot identify the faces of their family or friends, or even their own face in some cases. ”
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What Is the Brain Telling Us about Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder?

 

Do these diagnoses differ primarily by degree or are there clear categorical differences?

Philadelphia, PA, September 5, 2013—We live in the most exciting and unsettling period in the history of psychiatry since Freud started talking about sex in public, reports a new study published in the Elsevier journal Biological Psychiatry.
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What Are the Risks of Student Cyberbullying?

 

Almost one in three students admit to being bullied at school

September 5, 2013—Details of a survey of middle and high school student attitudes to cyberbullying and online safety will be published in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments. The analysis of the results shows that many children are bullied and few understand internet safety.
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Ability to Delay Gratification May Be Linked to Social Trust

Boulder, CO; September 4, 2013—A person's ability to delay gratification—forgoing a smaller reward now for a larger reward in the future—may depend on how trustworthy the person perceives the reward-giver to be, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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Yelling at Teens Found to be Harmful

 

Harsh verbal discipline may promote problematic behavior rather than minimizing it.

September 4, 2013—Many American parents yell or shout at their teenagers. A new longitudinal study has found that using such harsh verbal discipline in early adolescence can be harmful to teens later. Instead of minimizing teens' problematic behavior, harsh verbal discipline may actually aggravate it.
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Aging Really Is 'All in Your Head'

 

Scientists answer hotly debated questions about how calorie restriction delays aging process

September 3, 2013—Among scientists, the role of proteins called sirtuins in enhancing longevity has been hotly debated, driven by contradictory results from many different scientists. But new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louismay settle the dispute.
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Move It and Lose It: Every 'Brisk' Minute Counts

 

University of Utah study shows higher-intensity activity impacts weight, even in short bouts

September 1, 2013—To win the war against weight gain, it turns out that every skirmish matters—as long as the physical activity puts your heart and lungs to work.

In a new study published today in the American Journal of Health Promotion, University of Utah researchers found that even brief episodes of physical activity that exceed a certain level of intensity can have as positive an effect on weight as does the current recommendation of 10 or more minutes at a time.
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A Wine a Day . . .

August 30, 2013—Drinking wine in moderation may be associated with a lower risk of developing depression, according to research published in Biomed Central’s open access journal BMC Medicine.  The reported findings by the PREDIMED research Network  suggest that the moderate amounts of alcohol consumed may have similar protective effects on depression to those that have been observed for coronary heart disease.

The main alcoholic beverage drunk by the study participants was wine. When analysed, it was shown that those who drank moderate amounts of wine each week were less likely to suffer from depression. The lowest rates of depression were seen in the group of individuals who drank two to seven small glasses of wine  per week. These results remained significant even when the group adjusted them for lifestyle and social factors, such as smoking, diet and marital status.
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Overweight and Obese Women Are Equally Capable of the Impulse Control that Lean Women Exhibit

BUFFALO, NY; August 30, 2013—Dieters call it willpower; social scientists call it delayed gratification. Whether obese, overweight or lean, women who thought about future scenarios were able to postpone gratification, University at Buffalo study shows
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Exercising One Day a Week May Be Enough for Older Women

BIRMINGHAM, AL; August 30, 2013—A study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) reveals that women over age 60 may need to exercise only one day a week to significantly improve strength and endurance.
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Your Spouse's Voice is Easier to Hear—and Easier to Ignore

August 29, 2013—With so many other competing voices, having a conversation on a bustling subway or at a crowded cocktail party takes a great deal of concentration. New research suggests that the familiar voice of a spouse stands out against other voices, helping to sharpen auditory perception and making it easier to focus on one voice at a time.
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Men Feel Worse about Themselves When Female Partners Succeed

 

Men's subconscious self-esteem related to female partner's successes and failures

WASHINGTON; August 29, 2013—Deep down, men may not bask in the glory of their successful wives or girlfriends. While this is not true of women, men's subconscious self-esteem may be bruised when their spouse or girlfriend excels, says a study published by the American Psychological Association.
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Is War Disappearing? Um . . . Probably Not

 

Study suggests countries may simply have less ability to fight

COLUMBUS, OH; August 29, 2013—While some researchers have claimed that war between nations is in decline, a new analysis suggests we shouldn't be too quick to celebrate a more peaceful world.

The study finds that there is no clear trend indicating that nations are less eager to wage war, said Bear Braumoeller, author of the study and associate professor of political science at The Ohio State University.
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Researchers Discover a Potential Cause of Autism

CHAPEL HILL, NC; August 28, 2013—Problems with a key group of enzymes called topoisomerases can have profound effects on the genetic machinery behind brain development and potentially lead to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to research announced today in the journal Nature. Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have described a finding that represents a significant advance in the hunt for environmental factors behind autism and lends new insights into the disorder's genetic causes.
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Study Shows Mindfulness Training Can Help Reduce Teacher Stress and Burnout

MADISON, WI; August 28, 2013—Teachers who practice "mindfulness" are better able to reduce their own levels of stress and prevent burnout, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center.
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Dating Violence Impedes Victims' Earnings

August 27, 2013—Dating violence in adolescence not only takes a physical and emotional toll on young women, it also leads to less education and lower earnings later in life, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by a Michigan State University researcher.

A young woman’s educational performance may be hindered by her partner’s actions, such as destroying books or homework or causing injuries that prevent her from going to school.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, reinforce the need for programs and efforts to support victims’ education and career development throughout their lives, said Adrienne Adams, lead researcher on the study and MSU assistant professor of psychology.
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Autistic Children Can Outgrow Difficulty Understanding Visual Cues and Sounds

BRONX, NY; August 28, 2013—Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have shown that high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children appear to outgrow a critical social communication disability. Younger children with ASD have trouble integrating the auditory and visual cues associated with speech, but the researchers found that the problem clears up in adolescence. The study was published today in the online edition of the journal Cerebral Cortex.
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Long-Term Memory in the Cortex

 

Game-changing research suggests memory is not localized in the hippocampus after all

August 27, 2013—'Where' and 'how' memories are encoded in a nervous system is one of the most challenging questions in biological research. The formation and recall of associative memories is essential for an independent life. The hippocampus has long been considered a centre in the brain for the long-term storage of spatial associations. Now, Mazahir T. Hasan at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and José Maria Delgado-Garcìa at the University Pablo de Olavide of Seville, Spain, were able to provide the first experimental evidence that a specific form of memory associations is encoded in the cerebral cortex and is not localized in the hippocampus as described in most Neuroscience textbooks. The new study is a game changer since it strongly suggests that the motor cortical circuits itself, and not the hippocampus, is used as memory storage.
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Do Girls Really Experience More Math Anxiety?

 

Or do they just admit to more?

August 26, 2013—Girls report more math anxiety on general survey measures but are not actually more anxious during math classes and exams, according to new research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science (APS).

Existing research suggests that females are more anxious when it comes to mathematics than their male peers, despite similar levels of achievement. But education researchers Thomas Götz and Madeleine Bieg of the University of Konstanz and the Thurgau University of Teacher Education and colleagues identified a critical limitation of previous studies examining math anxiety: They asked students to describe more generalized perceptions of mathematics anxiety, rather than assessing anxiety during actual math classes and exams.
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Why do Haters Have to Hate? Newly Identified Personality Trait Holds Clues

PHILADELPHIA; August 26, 2013—New research has uncovered the reason why some people seem to dislike everything while others seem to like everything. Apparently, it’s all part of our individual personality—a dimension that some researchers have coined “dispositional attitude.”
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In the Face of Trauma, Distance May Help People Find Clarity

AUSTIN, TX; August 22, 2013—In the wake of tragedies such as the Sandy Hook school shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing and the devastating explosion in the Texas town of West, people are often left asking, “Why did this happen?”

According to new research from The University of Texas at Austin, the best way to make sense of tragedy is to turn away from detailed reports in the news and social media and adopt a more simplified understanding of the event.
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Well-Being Not a Priority for Workaholics, Researcher Says

MANHATTAN; August 22, 2013—Working overtime may cost you your health, according to a Kansas State University doctoral researcher.
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Prison Education Cuts Recidivism and Improves Employment, Study Finds

August 22, 2013—Prison inmates who receive general education and vocational training are significantly less likely to return to prison after release and are more likely to find employment than peers who do not receive such opportunities, according to a new RAND Corporation report.
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Mood is Influenced by Immune Cells Called to the Brain in Response to Stress

 

In Animal Study, Immune System Cells in Brain Lead to Anxiety Symptoms

COLUMBUS, OH; August 21, 2013—New research shows that in a dynamic mind-body interaction during the interpretation of prolonged stress, cells from the immune system are recruited to the brain and promote symptoms of anxiety.
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Grandmothers Who Raise Their Grandchildren Struggle with Depression

August 21, 2013—Grandmothers who care for their grandkids fulltime need help for depression and family strains, report researchers from the Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
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Brain Circuit Can Tune Anxiety

CAMBRIDGE, MA; August 21, 2013—Anxiety disorders, which include posttraumatic stress disorder, social phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder, affect 40 million American adults in a given year. In a step toward uncovering better targets for treatment, MIT researchers have discovered a communication pathway between two brain structures—the amygdala and the ventral hippocampus—that appears to control anxiety levels. By turning the volume of this communication up and down in mice, the researchers were able to boost and reduce anxiety levels.
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Community Intervention Program Reduces Repeat Intimate-Partner Violence

August 20, 2013—Mothers who completed a mandatory community intimate-partner violence (IPV) program were less likely to be re-victimized and more likely to leave an abusive spouse or partner, say researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Researchers Identify Biomarkers for Possible Blood Test to Predict Suicide Risk

INDIANAPOLIS; August 20, 2013—Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have found a series of RNA biomarkers in blood that may help identify who is at risk for committing suicide.
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Psychotherapy Lags as Evidence Goes Unheeded

PROVIDENCE, RI; August 20, 2013—Psychotherapy has issues. Evidence shows that some psychosocial treatments work well for common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and that consumers often prefer them to medication. Yet the use of psychotherapy is on a clear decline in the United States. In a set of research review papers in the November issue of the journal Clinical Psychology Review, psychologists put psychotherapy on the proverbial couch to examine why it’s foundering.
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Study Suggests Iron is at Core of Alzheimer's Disease

 

Findings challenge conventional thinking about possible causes of disorder

August 20, 2013—Alzheimer's disease has proven to be a difficult enemy to defeat. After all, aging is the No. 1 risk factor for the disorder, and there's no stopping that.

Most researchers believe the disease is caused by one of two proteins, one called tau, the other beta-amyloid. As we age, most scientists say, these proteins either disrupt signaling between neurons or simply kill them. Now, a new UCLA study suggests a third possible cause: iron accumulation.
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Giving Preschoolers Choice Increases Sharing Behavior

August 19, 2013—Getting kids to share their toys is a never-ending battle, and compelling them to do so never seems to help. New research suggests that allowing children to make a choice to sacrifice their own toys in order to share with someone else makes them share more in the future. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

These experiments, conducted by psychological scientists Nadia Chernyak and Tamar Kushnir of Cornell University, suggest that sharing when given a difficult choice leads children to see themselves in a new, more beneficent light. Perceiving themselves as people who like to share makes them more likely to act in a prosocial manner in the future.
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Brain Network Decay Detected in Early Alzheimer's

August 19, 2013—In patients with early Alzheimer's disease, disruptions in brain networks emerge about the same time as chemical markers of the disease appear in the spinal fluid, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown.
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Far from Being Harmless, the Effects of Bullying Last Long into Adulthood

APS; August 19, 2013—A new study shows that serious illness, struggling to hold down a regular job, and poor social relationships are just some of the adverse outcomes in adulthood faced by those exposed to bullying in childhood.
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Autistic Kids Who Best Peers at Math Show Different Brain Organization

STANFORD, CA; August 16, 2013—Children with autism and average IQs consistently demonstrated superior math skills compared with nonautistic children in the same IQ range, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

"There appears to be a unique pattern of brain organization that underlies superior problem-solving abilities in children with autism," said Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a member of the Child Health Research Institute at Packard Children's.

The autistic children's enhanced math abilities were tied to patterns of activation in a particular area of their brains—an area normally associated with recognizing faces and visual objects.
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Will to Win Forms at Age Four

 

New research suggests children under four don’t yet understand competitive behaviour

August 15, 2013—A team of researchers from the University of Warwick and University of Salzburg found most children under 4 did not have a developed understanding of other people's perspectives—specifically, of the fact that what someone intentionally does depends on their take on the situation.

The researchers wanted to explore how much young children’s understand other people’s goals: do they understand that an actor’s goals reflect his or her perspective on what’s desirable?
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Worms May Shed Light on Human Ability to Handle Chronic Stress

 

Rutgers scientists question why some suffer and others are better able to cope

August 15, 2013—New research at Rutgers University may help shed light on how and why nervous system changes occur and what causes some people to suffer from life-threatening anxiety disorders while others are better able to cope.
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Making the Brain Attend to Faces in Autism

Philadelphia, PA; August 15, 2013—A new study explores the influence of oxytocin on brain responses to social stimuli in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Findings suggest that oxytocin may help to treat a basic brain function that goes awry in autism spectrum disorders.
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Mas y Menos Principle Helps Latino families Eat More Veggies, Drink Less Soda

URBANA, IL; August 12, 2013—A successful program that increased the number of fruits and vegetables eaten and decreased sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by 50 percent among Latino children had two secret weapons, according to a University of Illinois researcher.
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Cultural Mythologies Strongly Influence Women's Expectations about Being Pregnant

NEW YORK CITY; August 10, 2013—Morning sickness, shiny hair, and bizarre and intense cravings for pickles and ice cream—what expectations do pregnant women impose on their bodies, and how are those expectations influenced by cultural perspectives on pregnancy?
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Tidy Desk or Messy Desk? Each Has Its Benefits

August 5, 2013—Working at a clean and prim desk may promote healthy eating, generosity, and conventionality, according to new research. But, the research also shows that a messy desk may confer its own benefits, promoting creative thinking and stimulating new ideas.
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How a Cancer Drug Unties Knots in the Chromosome That Causes Angelman and Prader-Willi Syndromes

SACRAMENTO, CA; August 5, 2013— UC Davis researchers have identified how and where in the genome a cancer chemotherapy agent acts on and 'un-silences' the epigenetically silenced gene that causes Angelman syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe intellectual disability, seizures, motor impairments, and laughing and smiling.
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How the Brain Keeps Eyes on the Prize

 

Researchers study how the brain remains focused on long-term goals

Cambridge; August 4, 2013—As anyone who has traveled with young children knows, maintaining focus on distant goals can be a challenge. A new study from the Massacusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests how the brain achieves this task, and indicates that the neurotransmitter dopamine may signal the value of long-term rewards. The findings may also explain why patients with Parkinson's disease—in which dopamine signaling is impaired—often have difficulty in sustaining motivation to finish tasks.

The work is described this week in the journal Nature.
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Why Is Orange the New Black for Female Victims of Trauma?

 

New study explores the pathways that lead to jail time for women

Los Angeles, CA; August 2, 2013—How do pathways to jail vary for females who are victims of specific types of trauma? New research published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, a SAGE journal, pinpoints the types of trauma such as caregiver violence, witnessing violence, and intimate partner violence, that lead to specific types of offending later in life and offers explanations based on real experiences.

In addition to finding specific patterns in patient history, the researchers also found that the women they interviewed had high rates of mental health disorders.
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New Drugs May Offer Hope for Alzheimer's Patients

August 2, 2013—The future is looking good for drugs designed to combat Alzheimer's disease. Scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have unveiled how two classes of drug compounds currently in clinical trials work to fight the disease. Their research suggests that these compounds target the disease-causing peptides with high precision and with minimal side-effects. At the same time, the scientists offer a molecular explanation for early-onset hereditary forms of Alzheimer's, which can strike as early as thirty years of age. The conclusions of their research, which has been published in the journal Nature Communications, are very encouraging regarding the future of therapeutic means that could keep Alzheimer's disease in check.
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Neuroscientists Find Protein Linked to Cognitive Deficits in Angelman Syndrome

August 1, 2013—A team of neuroscientists has identified a protein in laboratory mice linked to impairments similar to those afflicted with Angelman syndrome (AS)—a condition associated with symptoms that include autism, intellectual disability, and motor abnormalities.
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Being Bullied Throughout Childhood and Teens May Lead to More arrests, Convictions, Prison Time

HONOLULU: August 1, 2013—People who were repeatedly bullied throughout childhood and adolescence were significantly more likely to go to prison than individuals who did not suffer repeated bullying, according to a new analysis presented at the American Psychological Association's 121st Annual Convention.
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Psychotherapy via Internet as Good Or Better than Face-to-Face Consultations

July 30, 2013—Online psychotherapy is just as efficient as conventional therapy. Three months after the end of the therapy, patients given online treatment even displayed fewer symptoms. For the first time, clinical researchers from the University of Zurich (UZH) provide scientific evidence of the equal value of internet-based psychotherapy.
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Be Happy: Your Genes May Thank You For It

 

But different types of happiness have different effects, UCLA study shows

July 29, 2013—A good state of mind—that is, your happiness—affects your genes, scientists say. In the first study of its kind, researchers from UCLA's Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and the University of North Carolina examined how positive psychology impacts human gene expression.

What they found is that different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on the human genome.
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No Money for Diapers: A Depressing Reality for Poor Mothers

July 29, 2013—Low-income mothers who cannot afford diapers are also more likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety, Yale University researchers write in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics.
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Intent to Harm: Willful Acts Seem More Damaging

July 29, 2013—How harmful we perceive an act to be depends on whether we see the act as intentional, reveals new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The new research shows that people significantly overestimate the monetary cost of intentional harm, even when they are given a financial incentive to be accurate.

"The law already recognizes intentional harm as more wrong than unintentional harm," explain researchers Daniel Ames and Susan Fiske of Princeton University. "But it assumes that people can assess compensatory damages—what it would cost to make a person 'whole' again—independently of punitive damages."

According to Ames and Fiske, the new research suggests that this separation may not be psychologically plausible.
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